Email this article to a friend

Thursday, Nov 15, 2018, 1:00 pm

Bernie to Walmart: Pay Your Workers $15 an Hour, or Else

Email this article to a friend

your email

your name

recipient(s) email (comma separated)

message

captcha

Bernie Sanders at a rally in October (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images).

Fresh off a successful campaign to to name and shame Amazon for its low wages, Bernie Sanders is setting his sights on Walmart. Today, the Vermont senator is introducing the “STOP Walmart Act,” a bill that demands the retail behemoth raise its wages or face penalties.

Co-sponsored by California Rep. Ro Khanna, the bill would prevent Walmart and other large companies from buying back stock unless they pay all employees at least $15 an hour, allow them to earn up to seven days paid sick leave and cap CEO pay at 150 times median worker compensation.

The largest private employer in America, Walmart has been targeted labor activists for years over its low wages, anti-union policies and history of alleged workplace discrimination. Excessive giveaways in the form of stock buybacks are a way for executives and wealthy shareholders to extract corporate profits for themselves rather than investing them in higher worker wages and benefits, according to progressive economists.

“Investors and executives may be celebrating positive results and increased expectations, but meanwhile hundreds of thousands of Walmart’s frontline employees and our families face the daily struggle of making ends meet on poverty wages,” said Shashauna Phillips, a Walmart worker and leader in the worker advocacy group OUR Walmart, in a statement e-mailed to In These Times.

With competitors like Amazon and Target committing to $15 an hour, said Phillips:

Our company has a choice to make: it can fall further behind by spending billions on share buybacks or it can do what’s right for both the company and its employees by paying all workers a living wage The efforts being led by Senator Sanders and Representative Khanna show what’s possible when elected leaders stand with working people to demand more from our country’s largest private employer.

The STOP Walmart Act comes just two months after Sanders and Khanna introduced a similar bill targeting Amazon, dubbed the “Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies”—or, pointedly, Stop BEZOS.

The Amazon bill, which would impose a tax on large companies whose employees have to rely social assistance, didn’t stand much of a chance in Congress. It was also denounced as unworkable by a host of policy wonks.

But it’s hard to deny that it’s working as a pressure tactic. Last month, Amazon announced that it would bump workers’ starting wages to $15 an hour. The change leaves plenty to be desired: The company also slashed stock options and incentive-based pay for employees, and it later became clear that thousands of Amazon delivery drivers would not be eligible for the wage bump. But Jeff Bezos acknowledged that the company had “listened to our critics,” a sign that Amazon is beginning to feel the heat.

Sanders is now taking a similar tack with Walmart. On Wednesday evening he tweeted, “The Walton family of Walmart owns more wealth than the bottom 40% of Americans. Meanwhile 55% of Walmart’s associates are food insecure. This is what we mean when we talk about a rigged economy, and why I'm introducing a bill tomorrow to make Walmart start paying a living wage.”

Earlier this year, Walmart announced that it was raising its starting wage to $11 an hour, thanks to savings from from Trump’s tax cuts. But there was a catch: On the same day, the company also announced plans to lay off thousands of workers. And $11 an hour still amounts to an annual salary below the poverty line for a family of three.

On Wednesday, Ken Jacobs, chair of the University of California Berkeley's Labor Center, told the Washington Post that Walmart would need to spend about $3.8 billion to raise its minimum wage to $15. That might sound like a lot, but the Walton family is worth about $180 billion, and the company takes in an annual revenue of $500 billion.

In addition to the Amazon and Walmart bills, last week Sanders announced that he plans to reintroduce a bill this winter that would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

None of these measures are likely to pass in a GOP-controlled Senate, of course, but that’s not the main point. Sanders and Khanna are using their public profiles to take billionaires to task. That’s a good thing for the progressive wing of the Democratic party, and for working people everywhere.

What do you want to see from our coverage of the 2020 presidential candidates?

As our editorial team maps our plan for how to cover the 2020 Democratic primary, we want to hear from you:

It only takes a minute to answer this short, three-question survey, but your input will help shape our coverage for months to come. That’s why we want to make sure you have a chance to share your thoughts.

No response from you, huh? I guess you didn't bother to google the words Danish fast food workers make $20 dollar an hour with full benefits or google the words Australians fast food workers make $20 bucks an hour. It proves that you wouldn't admit that you are wrong which is so typical of the conservatives.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-29 00:04:52

I saw Hanauer's video. You make good points, rent has increased even though the minimum wage has not but I don't know that I would say, "Landlords don't care whether the minimum wage goes up or down." All we know is that they don't care if it goes down, as it has in real value over the last 38 years. If it goes up I still believe they will care -- and care quite a bit. Hopefully we can elect many AOC quality Representatives in the future. Take care!

Posted by Cadmiam on 2018-11-26 19:33:17

There sooner or later there will be a push for affordable housing/apartments because you will have new politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who will make an issue of it. Because of the Great Recession of 2008, the banks were stuck with a lot of empty houses because people had lost their jobs and could no longer live in them. The banks didn't take care of the homes even though they were now the new owners and so the cities and counties told the banks to properly maintain the houses; otherwise, the government would start intflicing monetary fines against the banks on a daily basis.

Prices on housing and rent have gone up even though the minimum wage has not gone up significantly in the last 38 years so the landlords don't care whether the minimum wage goes up or not. As a matter of fact, one Republican politician (can't recalled his name) stated that the minimum wage should be abolish.

These so-called "job creators" are not job creators at all. On youtube, there is this video titled the Pitchforks are coming ....for us Plutocrats and the speaker is Nick Hanauer. Mr. Hanauer stated the this talk about corporations and wealthy people creating jobs is blatantly false, is myth, and a downright right lie and he talks about who are the real job creators.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-26 18:35:27

I wasn't aware there were price controls on housing that could be restored. Either way, there is no push for that. The push is to increase the min wage. I believe that any increases in minimum wages will be vacuumed up by rentiers. Basically a transfer of wealth from employers to landlords, with the renter/employee functioning as the go between. If you can find any data on rent increases (or decreases!) in Seattle/Washington after the hike in minimum wages, I would like to see it.

Posted by Cadmiam on 2018-11-26 07:19:19

Restore prices controls on goods and services and on housing and apartments. That's how we do it. Of course that means the wealthy people and corporations will not like it; however, they can't complain about the homeless people and the mentally ill people who are out on the streets because they have no safe, secure place to get themselves back on their feet when they are too worry about where they are going to sleep and many of them work at jobs that can't cover the rent because the owners keep jacking up the prices and the employers pay them lousy wages..

CEOs get their salaries raise every year; however, they don't have to worry about renting a house or an apartment because money is no object. The CEO of Amazon makes about $191,000 per hour so he can easily rent a place in New York City or San Francisco and the East Bay area. He doesn't have to worry about his wages being sucked up.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-25 20:13:58

Never underestimate our rentier class DDR. This is not Denmark. Rentiers pride themselves on extracting every dime possible. If our minimum wage goes up -- rent WILL go up. No doubt in my mind. That is not a case against raising the minimum wage but how do you propose we keep any benefit of increased wages from being sucked up by the "job creators" and "rent collectors"?

Posted by Cadmiam on 2018-11-25 20:01:36

Why only CEOs? Because there are a lot more CEOs than there are movie stars and professional athletes combined. In the small city where I work, there are many CEOs; I know because I work for one and my friends at other companies -- they work for CEOs too. I know because they tell me. Not a movie star or professional athlete in site.

Posted by Cadmiam on 2018-11-25 19:52:07

Tried to post the links about Australians and Danish fast food workers making $20 an hour with full benefits but the website will not let me post the links. You look it up yourself if you got the courage to so.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-24 10:47:34

I have tried to post links but the owners of this website won't let me do so. Type in the word Danish fast food workers make $20 dollars an hour and hours and the words Australian fast food workers make $20 dollars an hour and you will get a whole bunch of links. Or are you too chicken and lazy to do so?

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-24 10:45:53

You are the ones who is chickenshit you are when you can't or won't look up about Danish and Australian workers make $20 dollars an hour with full benefits. I tried to post the link; however, the owners of this website won't let me do

You are the one going off on a tantrum and flat out lies

"That translates to "every worker still earns minimum wage, because that's what he or she started at and they couldn't ever get a better-paying job."

That is a whimsical statement. You have proof of that?

"one of the worst workers protections in the world."? Compared to anywhere in Africa, Asia or Central or South America?"

That is a whimsical statement. If you had done your research you would know that the USA has one of the worst worker protections in the world.

I will give you a choice either do your own research since the owners will not let me post the links or keep behavioring and displaying all the comments that you are truly make up or just ignore me which shows you what a chickenstuff you are.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-24 10:10:48

Instead of answering my questions ('who are you to determine...?' or 'define decent pay...') or countering my positions (if the employee accepted the position for a certain rate of pay, that makes it decent pay) or even my implied positions (the very definition of 'worth' is 'somebody is willing to pay you that much'), you're going off on a tantrum and throwing off nonsensical statements without any backup at all.

Wait - did I say nonsensical? I should have said clearly untrue. Or how about flat-out lies?

"one of the worst workers protections in the world."? Compared to anywhere in Africa, Asia or Central or South America?

" impossible for worker to go get a better paying job for the last 38 years." That translates to "every worker still earns minimum wage, because that's what he or she started at and they couldn't ever get a better-paying job."

"The rules for determining decent pay has been rigged in favor of the employer." Tell me, please, what are the rules for determining decent pay?

I'll give you a choice - you can answer my questions and respond to my points, or you can behave like you always have done so far and call me stupid, and display to all the commenters what you're truly made of. Or you can ignore me, which shows how chickensh/t you are.

Posted by MrJimm on 2018-11-23 12:48:04

Is that the best you can say?

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-22 12:32:51

What is a decent pay to you? Starvation wages?

The USA has one of the worst workers protections in the world.

The employers have made it impossible for worker to go get a better paying job for the last 38 years.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-22 11:15:55

I actually make approximately $24,000-$25,000 each month through the internet. I lost my job after doing work for the same organization for several years, I required reliable income. I was not interested in the "get rich overnight" packages you can see all over the net. Those are all mlm programs or stuff in which you need to sell to your friends and relatives. The best benefit of working on-line is that I am always home with the kids and also I easily go on family vacation for long period. Honestly,it is actually simpler than you would believe. I got the instructions kit and within a few weeks I was earning over $4,000 per month. You don't have to be technical, but you should be aware how to use the internet. If you can fill up forms and surf sites, you can do it quite easily, You don't need to sell anything. It is as simple as being on any social media site. Here’s what I do TOMMYNIK.TUMBLR.COM

Posted by Patricia K. Gonzalez on 2018-11-22 06:30:21

"The hatred is strong with this one."

I am throwing this statement of yours right back to you.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-21 18:51:41

No it is you and the conservatives are the ones filled with hatred and have been so for the last 38 years.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-21 18:50:50

No response, huh? I didn't really think that McDonald's employees made $20 an hour plus benefits, in two different countries, no less. But that won't stop DDRLSGC from calling me stupid again.

Posted by MrJimm on 2018-11-21 17:18:08

The hatred is strong with this one.

Posted by MrJimm on 2018-11-21 11:35:55

You are stupid and dumb as Sarah Palin, the two Bushes, Ronald Reagan and all those CEOs who believe that cutting taxes and not regulating businesses will produce propsersity.

If you replace people with robots or paid them starvation wages, how will the people buys your goods and services. You are the ones who don't understand that actions have consequences.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-21 08:58:21

The hate is strong in this one.

Posted by MrJimm on 2018-11-20 17:14:04

If it costs $13 an hour to put a robot on the floor, Walmart will be willing to pay a human $12 an hour, but if Bernie insists that people have to be paid $15 OR ELSE, that 'or else' will turn out to be a $13 an hour robot. NOW do you get it?

And THAT'S why conservatives are against a $15/hour minimum wage. WE understand that actions have consequences.

You're about as smart as Ocasio-Cortez. You're probably not aware that conservatives call her 'the gift that keeps on giving', are you?

Posted by MrJimm on 2018-11-20 15:24:02

you've proven nothing.

that you're sufficient stupid as to believe that she escaped indictment only because of her husband is not evidence of a damned thing other than that you're ignorant.

Sanders has ZERO allies in the federal government and quite a few enemies

Posted by fuster on 2018-11-20 14:17:17

I JUST PROVED TO YOU that it's not bullsh/t and rumors. And the NY Times is hardly "some guy on the Internet", either.

There is little doubt she wasn't indicted because she is the wife of a VERY PROMINENT POLITICIAN, and I'm sure that even you understand how that works. The laws don't apply to the elite people like that; they're only meant for peons like you & me.

Posted by MrJimm on 2018-11-20 12:42:36

I usually earn as much as $14000-$15000 per month through the internet. After doing work so passionately, I ended up losing my job in my company where I have given so many years. I truly needed a reliable source of income. I am not into "get rich overnight" offers as you can see all around the internet. Those are all kind of ponzi referral marketing strategies where you need to first make interested customers and then sell a product to friends and family or any person so that they will likely be in your team. online job provides many benefits such as I am always home with my family and can relish lots of leisure time and go out for family trips. Here's the easiest way to start >>> THAPMARK.TUMBLR.COM

Posted by Rebecca R. Tate on 2018-11-20 05:00:18

this happened 8 years ago and she never faced any indictment?

at this point, it's bullshht and rumors.

Posted by fuster on 2018-11-20 00:19:41

You got a citation for those studies? It literally does not make any sense at all to for those pay rates & benefit packages to be offered to McDonald's employees. Who would work anywhere else?

Posted by MrJimm on 2018-11-19 22:39:04

According to the NY Times “His wife, Jane Sanders, has hired a lawyer to represent her as federal authorities look into a $10 million sale of about 33 acres of lakefront property by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington to Burlington College.[…]

…the facts in the case do not fit well with Mr. Sanders’s populist image. The charges revolve around a $6.5 million bank loan, that was obtained with a promise that college donors would quickly pay back at least $2.6 million of the debt. They did not, Ms. Sanders was ousted, and the college went belly up. […]

A federal law enforcement official, who declined to be identified because the matter was still under investigation, confirmed that the authorities have been looking into the land deal.

To finance the land purchase, the college borrowed from a bank and obtained additional financing from the diocese, according to David V. Dunn, a Burlington College trustee at the time. The college needed to demonstrate that it had the financial resources to pay the bank loan, which it did with Ms. Sanders’s assurances that it would receive $2.6 million in donations and increase its enrollment, Mr. Dunn said.

“Neither of those were true,” he said in an interview Monday. Some of the pledges turned out to be overstated, and enrollment did not increase. Ms. Sanders was forced to resign in 2011. Financially strained, the college closed last year. […]

“This apparent fraud resulted in as much as $2 million in losses to the Diocese and an unknown amount of loss to People’s United Bank, a federally financed financial institution,”

Posted by MrJimm on 2018-11-19 22:33:58

Please define "decent pay".

If you advertise a job opening and state what the job pays, and somebody applies and says "I want to work for you, doing that job for that rate of pay", is that not decent pay? If it wasn't decent pay, why did the employee accept it? And isn't that employee protected under too-numerous-to-count state & federal agencies like OSHA, Social Security, unemployment, workers comp, etc.?

If that employee thinks that he or she can get more pay somewhere else (which is the very definition of "worth more"), is that employee not free to go work somewhere else?

And last but not least, WHO ARE YOU to determine what decent pay for an employee is, if the employer and the employee isn't?

Posted by MrJimm on 2018-11-19 22:17:23

"...when you look at how they cheat their employees..." That's a really easy accusation to throw around, isn't it? You say it so often, it just flows right off your tongue. Pretty much the same as when conservatives accuse poor people of being 'welfare queens', except when they do it, people like you come down on them hard, yet you pretty much skate free whenever you make that accusation - with no evidence at all to back it up.

"not paying their fair share of taxes" Letting people keep the money they earned is just like stealing from the government, isn't it? Did you know that the top 1% of income earners pay nearly half of all income taxes, and the top 20% pay 84% of all income taxes? And no doubt you think that giving people a tax cut is horribly unfair JUST BECAUSE it doesn't help the 45.3% of the population that pay no income taxes at all, right?

I agree with you that the Icelanders did it right regarding the bankers. Keep in mind, though, who was President and which party controlled Congress right after the banking crash of 2008.

I don't understand how you can compare rich people preaching victimhood (I'm not even sure I know what that means) with the victimhood that progressives constantly preach to POC, LBGTQs, Muslims, immigrants, women, and for that matter, anybody who's not a while male cis-heterosexual.

I think you would understand conservatives a little bit better if you looked at our positions as trying to get people to take more responsibility for their own lives, instead of being overly dependent on the government.

Practically every word you've just written says "it's not our fault, it's all the rich people's fault. I shouldn't try any harder, or learn a new skill, or go back to school, because the cards are stacked against me and I'm never going to advance myself no matter what, anyhow.

Think about it. If you could support a 3-member family working at Walmart, who in his right mind would ever want to be promoted to manager? Or go to school to become a doctor, dentist, architect, engineer, programmer or lawyer?

Posted by MrJimm on 2018-11-19 22:02:35

A Walmart job doesn't provide decent wages for a part-time retiree and a teenager but it doesn't change the fact that religious leaders and the Republicans are not doing anything about wages in this country.

Perhaps you should preach about personal responsibility to a wealthy person/business person when you look at how they cheat their employees, steal from the government, not paying their fair share of taxes instead of crying that they are the victims, overthrowing populist governments around the world because those governments don't tolerate them treating their countries like a de facto colony and the populist leaders wants a better life for their people..

People can't get on a fair financial footing when the business leaders/wealthy people nickel and dime the people to death not giving them a good paying job with benefits, bringing in illegal workers or bringing in foreign workers by crying that they can't find American skilled workers.

Preaching victimhood works very well for wealthy people and business leaders when you look at all the sfuff they have been getting for decades.

Government does a poor job because you have wealthy people and business leaders ensuring that government doesn't do their jobs. Look at the business leaders that were pack in the Reagan, Bush, Sr, Bush, Jr, and the Trump administrations. The government in Western and Northern Europe do a pretty good job when it comes to regulating corporations and have been able to give their people a decent life since the end of World War II.. The people in Iceland didn't tolerate their government in trying to bail out the banks. They threw their politicians out of office and put the bankers in jail.

Studies have shown that when kids get a good sex education in school, pregnancies by kids go down, sexually transmitted diseases go down, and kids have a healthy respect for sex. Family values don't mean a thing when the parents are incapable of teaching sex education and most of them don't know how to teach it. These parents need to swallow their pride and realize that having a good education for kids will actually strengthen the family.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-19 19:27:33

Then tell me why, if all those white guys have, in your opinion, mis-governed and ruined this country, are all those Latino and Arab-descent people trying to break INTO this country?

Doesn't excuse the fact that the white guys have been screwing the world thus causing mass immigration all over the world.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-19 18:34:02

So what is your point?

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-19 18:32:21

CEOs have always been the bad guys when you look at how they have never given their employees decent pay. The workers only got a break when FDR came into office.

So what is a CEO has a different job? Everyone should get decent pay. A CEO doesn't have to upgrade his jobs skills, meet certain requirement every year in order to keep like a teacher, doctor, lawyer, nurse etc., and you never see them go back to school compare to the workers who have to switch jobs or tried to start new careers. In addition, the CEOs have political, social, and economic connections so they can easily land another job compare to the rest of the population. Professional athletes have very short careers and same thing with movie stars since Hollywood is still a youth oriented industry.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-19 18:31:53

Why only CEOs? Why not movie stars and pro athletes? Is it because CEOs are the latest 'bad guys' and it's easy to rev up your base against them, while you'll never get the public to complain or pass legislation against movie star compensation? A CEO performs a vastly different job than an assembly line worker, while an athlete like Derek Jeter plays shortstop, lust like two dozen other shortstops in MLB.

Posted by MrJimm on 2018-11-19 16:08:33

and I would say that I attended two

Posted by fuster on 2018-11-19 15:29:51

what "substantial" allegations?

was she indicted?

questioned about the loan by the state or federal authorities?

what is the substantiation?

is it some guy on the internet telling you it's true?

Posted by fuster on 2018-11-19 14:40:11

Because there are substantial allegations of band fraud. But because Bernie is a powerful political figure, she skated free. But she kept her big-bucks salary and golden parachute.

You see, Democratic Socialists care about the little people like you & me. And Bernie sure gives a good speech and can rev up his voter base, doesn't he?

Posted by MrJimm on 2018-11-19 11:14:59

Then tell me why, if all those white guys have, in your opinion, mis-governed and ruined this country, are all those Latino and Arab-descent people trying to break INTO this country?

I myself have been trying to get a message to President Trump that he should have Spanish-language translations of Howard Zinn's 'A People's History of the United States' parachuted down to the migrant caravans coming up from Honduras. That would surely stop them dead in their tracks and turn them right around to head for home.

Posted by MrJimm on 2018-11-19 11:09:56

You say "Republicans and right wing religious always talking about family values; however, they don't put their money where their mouth is when it comes to decent wages...". That's exactly my point. A Walmart job is meant to be decent wages for a teenager, or a part-time retiree. There is no way in the world to pay every employee in a Walmart store enough to support a 3-member family.

Perhaps if you preached personal responsibility instead of victimhood, then maybe more people would get married and be on a firm financial footing before they started having children. But preaching victimhood gets you more votes, and getting more votes & staying in power are more important than actually helping people, right?

As for government regulations on corporations, both political parties do a piss-poor job on that (as does Maduro's government in Venezuela, packing the oil industry with political cronies).

As for sex education, teaching anal intercourse to kindergartners isn't 'family values', and neither is teaching little kids to question their biological gender identity. I know those are the latest in-groups to appease and and try to lock into your voter base, but family values? I don't think so....

Posted by MrJimm on 2018-11-19 11:00:29

I could ask the same question of you.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-19 08:13:53

I generally get somewhere around $19,000-$20,000 each and every month using the internet. After doing work so passionately, I ended up losing my job in my company where I have given many years. I really needed a reliable source of income. I am not into "get rich overnight" package deals as you can see all around the net. Those are all kind of ponzi network marketing schemes where you need to first make interested customers and then sell a product to family and friends or any person so that they will probably be in your team. On-line job provides lots of benefits such as I am always home with my family and friends and can relish loads of leisure time and go out for family trips. Here's the best way to start >>> FILEGLIB.TUMBLR.COM

Posted by Beverly M. Hart on 2018-11-19 00:29:03

did you ever attend a university in the US?

Posted by fuster on 2018-11-19 00:20:35

It is a lot easier for poor kids in Northern Europe to move up the economic ladder because those governments support the kids in every way possible compare to that in the USA.

Supporting and funding a free/affordable education is far superior than your asinine way about blathering about one individual supporting a university. What I have stated about Reagan and the Koch brothers is the truth and you can't acknowledge it because you are the crud who has not developed and matured intellectually about what is going on in this country..

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-18 22:54:34

a kid NOT born rich who became a CEO after coming up with a valuable idea donates a freaking fortune to help students and you can do nothing but blather about how he's not doing enough????

and then , in your own asinine way, you go on with crap about reagan and the Lock brothers?

are you in your late teens or do you write sophomoric crud because you never developed and matured intellectually?

the guy does a good and wonderful thing and you can't acknowledge it?

Posted by fuster on 2018-11-18 22:17:59

So what if Bloomberg donate to help out students of low income? If he truly wanted to help the students, he should have been fighting to restore free/affordable college/vocational education for them just like we used have after World War II until Reagan set the precedence in dismantling it. Much easier to fund the education of low income students that way instead of relying on money from citizens like the Koch brothers who then have strings attached to them or are trying to take over the colleges and universities so they can impose the social, economic, and political brand on them which is what the Koch brothers are trying to do right now or having students be up to their necks with student loans

Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York and one of the world's richest people, is donating $1.8 billion to his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University, in an effort to boost financial aid for low- and middle-income students.

The university said the contribution — the largest ever to any education institution in the U.S. — will allow Johns Hopkins to eliminate student loans in financial aid packages starting next fall. The university will instead offer scholarships that don't have to be repaid.

In an op-ed published Sunday in The New York Times, Bloomberg said he was lucky to have attended the university, and could afford it thanks to a National Defense student loan and his job on campus.

"My Hopkins diploma opened up doors that otherwise would have been closed, and allowed me to live the American dream," he wrote. "I want to be sure that the school that gave me a chance will be able to permanently open that same door of opportunity for others."

Posted by fuster on 2018-11-18 21:35:04

Studies have shown that prices do how climb when the minimum wage goes up. In Australia and Denmark, the workers at the fast food places like McDonalds get $20 per hour and they also get health care benefits, vacation time, sick leave, etc. The prices of a hamburger did not climb up to $25 as many American conservatives claim that it did.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-18 18:46:02

Have you ever consider Republicans and right wing religious always talking about family values; however, they don't put their money where their mouth is when it comes to decent wages, fair labor laws, government regulations on corporations, sex education, etc?

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-18 18:42:21

Yeah we tell people of Arab descent and/or Latino descent to go back to their own countries when we made a mess of their countries in the first place since the end of World War II.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-18 18:29:41

Well, the Republicans and business leaders go on and on about how businesses are being tax to death, that the minimum wage is way too high, Americans workers are always greedy and never satisfied with what they have, and that corporations need tax breaks and subsidies in order to survive. The wealthy people and the Republican Party go on and on about how progressives, liberals, socialists, civil rights organizations are trying to foster classe/economic caste warfare when it is the Republicans and the wealthy people have been doing it since this country was founded.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-18 18:28:08

I don't really give a shht about whether the woman skillfully handled the school's finances.

why would anyone not affiliated with the school?

she's not in government and it's not a public issue?

do you care about whether Melania Trump has had too many cosmetic surgeries or whether she is skillful at managing a budget?

Posted by fuster on 2018-11-18 15:20:56

Sander's wife was paid very highly to run a private college in Vermont into bankruptcy. I won't go into the details of the bank loan she signed off on to expand the college's property, based on non-existent donor pledges that she swore she had in hand, but you can Google the details yourself if you want.

Posted by MrJimm on 2018-11-18 14:28:05

"It would also stop make them being so obsessed with money..."

Says the commentator who goes on and on and on about how much CEOs make.

Posted by MrJimm on 2018-11-18 14:18:51

Senators get a handsome salary and Sanders' wife also works and is highly paid.

nothing particularly untoward about buying houses

Posted by fuster on 2018-11-18 14:09:37

Have you ever considered that perhaps people shouldn't try to support a family of three by working at Walmart?

Posted by MrJimm on 2018-11-18 10:30:34

And just by the way, Sanders owns three houses. On a public servant's salary.

Posted by MrJimm on 2018-11-18 10:26:18

"...Afro-Americans did not come to this country of their own free will..."

And if given a choice, how many would stay here rather than go back to the country of their ancestors, or perhaps instead to a country totally governed by Africans, like Zimbabwe?

Posted by MrJimm on 2018-11-18 10:23:28

Pay them $15 and hour, and now, that $1.00 item is suddenly $4.50 or more. The workers will still be too poor to afford the higher prices of the stuff. Wages get raised, landlords raise rents, stores raise prices, so how will this help?

Posted by dagent on 2018-11-18 08:42:42

Those people at the top have been capping their employees' salaries for the last 38 years or if they had their way would be cutting the employees' salaries. Most people at the top don't believe that they HAVE ENOUGH MONEY. Money is like a drug and the people at the top are nothing but a bunch of drug addicts.

The USA thrive during the 1950s and 60s when the corporations and wealthy people were taxed heavily and the American democracy did not collapse because of it. Furthermore, you didn't see American companies going out of business and wealthy people being made homeless. .

"you can tax steeply those with great deals of income, as we used to do, but it is no more democratic to impose a salary cap on CEOs than it is to impose a salary cap on Walmart workers."

Yeah and you have these wealthy people telling the rest of us to live within our means; yet, these wealthy people refuse to give us a decent wage while they keep nickeling and diming us to death. That is not a democracy let alone a well regulated capitalism system.

This country has been never a democracy. When you remove the word "democracy" , you will find that we have been a plutocracy/oligarchy society where the wealthy people are acting like a bunch of dictators.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-18 00:10:24

the point is that you can not cap salaries of private employees because MOST people at the top already have money..... not in a democracy.

in a dictatorship you certainly can but that is just not lawful in a democratic republic

you can tax steeply those with great deals of income, as we used to do, but it is no more democratic to impose a salary cap on CEOs than it is to impose a salary cap on Walmart workers

Posted by fuster on 2018-11-17 23:43:15

"Tell me about Mayor Bloomberg, Steve Wozniak or Steve Jobs."

What is your point? The CEOs have been overwhelmingly from wealthy families.

"don't tell me about a book featuring some insane claim that black people are due half of the money earned by white workers

You obviously don't care about reading the book and for your information, white workers have been cheated of their wages for the last 38 years and don't tell me that wealthy people are due tax breaks and subsidies because they have been taxed to death for the last 38 years.

Well, Afro-Americans did not come to this country of their own free will and the same thing for many white people who came first here as slaves and later as indentured servants (which was no better at all).

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-17 22:24:56

Again DD, it doesn't matter whether Sanders has Democratic support or not. The Republicans will not cooperate.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-17 22:17:43

it absolutely matters, DD.

when Democrats also won't support Sanders because Sanders isn't really a Democrat, it matters very much that not only Repubs but also Dems scorn Sanders.

it matters that Sanders is the only person in Congress who supports Sanders

Posted by fuster on 2018-11-17 20:59:37

tell me about Mayor Bloomberg, Steve Wozniak or Steve Jobs,

don't tell me about a book featuring some insane claim that black people are due half of the money earned by white workers

Posted by fuster on 2018-11-17 20:57:16

Too many of the CEOs come from the wealthy class these days so what they know about having a middle class live. Read the book Economic Apartheid by Chuck Collins

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-17 18:46:11

I will tell you again, the Republicans have made it clear that they will not support the Democrats so it doesn't matter whether Sanders is a Democrat or not.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-17 18:44:05

what does Repubs being full of shht have to do with Sanders complete lack of support in Congress?the Dems also don't support a guy who fancies himself an independent when it suits him and who jumps in and out of the Dem Party.

that may well be an admirable stance but it doesn't make him popular with Dem Congresspersons

Posted by fuster on 2018-11-17 10:46:11

what makes you think that they didn't grow up leading middle class lives?

Posted by fuster on 2018-11-17 10:42:35

Catchy acronym in relation to Bezos. But I came up with another one a while back. Those workers not only at such behemoths as Amazon and Wal-Mart, but others like them who have been stuck in the working paycheck to paycheck rut with little chance to escape were once described as Generation LIMBO. I capitalize the word because I was able to come up with what I thought was the perfect acronym: Lower Income Mostly Beyond Overhaul.

Posted by beechnut79 on 2018-11-17 10:03:54

The Republicans are full of horse dung. Zero support? He has zero support from the Republicans who have made it very clear that they are not going to work with Democratic in both houses and in the White House and they (the Republicans) have change the filibuster rules so it is impossible for any bill to leave the House of Representatives.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-17 08:21:03

So they can learn how to live like to live like the rest of the population and be made to realizes how difficult it is for their workers to live off the salaries that they give to their employees. It would also make them being so obsessed with money.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-17 08:17:12

Why don't American business leaders mind their own business about not overthrowing populist elected governments because the people don't want to be de facto colonies of the American business community and want to have a better life for themselves plus trying to get rid of unions at home and aboard?

Because they are obnoxious kykes just like Sanders. We are talking about a pattern of behavior specific to the Jew racial group.

Posted by Robert Browning on 2018-11-17 01:56:52

why aren't you satisfied with quietly jerking off into your mother's soiled panties and need to make yourself a bigoted troll as well?

perhaps you would be better off committing suicide and cease being so unhappy and disgusting

Posted by fuster on 2018-11-17 00:43:36

why?

Posted by fuster on 2018-11-17 00:41:09

Sanders is full of shht on thisand his threats aren't worth toilet paper.

he has ZERO support in Congress and bills that he introduce NEVER go anyway other than the trash bin.

in nearly 27 years in Congress he has introduced around 350 bills and a grand total of 3 of them have passed into law.

2 of those 3 were about putting new names on post offices in Vermont.

Posted by fuster on 2018-11-17 00:40:56

So what is your point?

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-16 23:22:59

But who is going to buy their products when no one has a job?

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-16 22:31:05

CEO pay should be cap at 2% median worker compensation.

Posted by DDRLSGC on 2018-11-16 22:30:08

What does that have to do with paying humans shit wages?

Posted by dkt on 2018-11-16 18:18:44

Why can't these kykes learn to mind their own business? And they wonder why they have been expelled and forcibly ejected from every place they have ever lived.

Posted by Robert Browning on 2018-11-16 17:51:40

There are already self checkouts at Walmart, if someone makes a robot to stock the shelves, Walmart won't be far behind McDonald's in cutting employee numbers.

Posted by Pru Knielsen on 2018-11-16 13:01:53

About this Blog

"Working In These Times" is dedicated to providing independent and incisive coverage of the labor movement and the struggles of workers to obtain safe, healthy and just workplaces. more